Director(s) – Jeremy W. Brown (The End: A Zombie Survivor’s Vlog, Torment) and Dustin Montierth (Serial)
Starring – Tom McLoughlin (Critters 2, Friday the 13th Part VI: Jason Lives) C.J. Graham (Highway to Hell, Friday the 13th Part VI: Jason Lives), and Jason Brooks (The Gamers: Hands of Fate, Happy Trails)
Release Date – 2019
Rating – 3.5/5
I’ve spent the last few days watching a few Friday the 13th fan films without realizing that today was actually Friday the 13th. Anyway, yesterday I went through the two Friday the 13th fans films from Todd Jason Cook. They were pretty rough to watch but it was cool to see these films knowing that these two films were what started his career.
After I finished those I decided to toss in another fan film. This time I went with 2019’s Vengeance. I grabbed this one a few months back on blu and had been sitting on it until now. This film is also notable for the film’s Jason going to conventions and charging unsuspecting fans for pictures and autographs. Not cool.
**Spoiler Alert** The film takes place 3 decades after Tommy Jarvis encountered Jason. Now, he has gone missing forcing his daughter and a group of people that lost loved ones to Jason go to Camp Crystal Lake to search for answers. What they don’t expect is for Jason to be real and is adding even more bodies to his body count. **Spoiler Alert**
I’ve seen a few fan films that were great and I’ve seen some that were total piles of shit. However, I was not expecting to see something this awesome. There is some aspects of the story that just wasn’t working for me but the overall film really impressed me. I couldn’t image what these two filmmakers could achieve if they actually approached their own slasher film with this much passion.
The acting in this one is very inconsistent. We have some pretty top notch performances while others were very lackluster. The film has a pretty big cast so I would be here all day picking apart the performances. Just note that some of the cast has plenty of on screen experience while others were lacking. This inexperience does rear it’s ugly head and makes some of the scenes awkward to watch.
The story for this one dives deep into the mythology of Jason instead of going forward with new characters like most of the cannon Friday the 13th films do. This did leave me with more questions than answers but you can’t expect a fan film to be perfect. Most of the tie-ins were very thought out and worked but there was some that left me scratching my head. With that being said, I really enjoyed the story and what it brought us.
Finally, this film is a bloody mess. We get some very impressive kills that brings us the brutality that we expect from Jason with some very nice practical effects. When it came to the kills this fan film held nothing back. Overall, Vengeance is THE fan film for Friday the 13th fans. It’s relentless with a very clever story. I highly suggest checking this bloody masterpiece out.
